"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
-Jesus, luke 11:9-10
this is the promise we hold on to. that when we ask our good Father for gifts, He will be faithful, kind, and good to give them to us. but the key is, we must ask.
over these next 40 days, we will be asking. we will be asking God to give us good gifts. we hold on to His promise found in this word, spoken through His son Jesus.
God, starting today, and over these next 40 days, we stand. we stand before the Your Holy presence, in the presence of your angels, and we come before you as your children, and we are asking for the Holy Spirit. God, we stand on behalf of Intervarsity and UCSD, and we are asking for you to pour out your Holy Spirit upon your people. Give us the Holy Spirit. we are asking because You promised us that You will answer us when we ask. You promised us that when we ask, You will give us something better than we can ask or imagine, good gifts beyond all that we can comprehend.
so starting today, God, we will pray with confidence, knowing that every word we pray will reach the throne room of heaven. we pray with full assurance that each word we pray will not go unheard, but will be a sweet sound that reaches Your ears. we know that each word we pray will bring about change. we know know that our prayers will shake the foundations of the kingdom of darkness. we know that our prayers will shake the spiritual atmosphere of UCSD. we will stand confident that You will be faithful to your promise to answer our prayers.
God, thank you for your faithfulness.
in the name of Jesus amen.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
His joy is our strength
Recently the Lord has been showing me how the joy that comes from Him is truly our strength. In Nehemiah 8:10, as Ezra rads the law and all kinds of people listen and praise the Lord and understand the Law and rejoice in the Lord, Nehemiah, the governor, says that the joy of the Lord will be our strength. and the people, the Levites and all the other people there, rejoiced because they understood what he meant when he said that.
what does that mean? It's beautiful. it sounds GREAT. the joy of the Lord sounds pretty nice, and strength is always good. but how do they go together?
we are in a culture and a generation that emphasizes personal greatness and striving. where if we work hard enough, if we do the right things, if we have the right connections, we will "succeed" and have a lot of money and have high status. we live in a culture that tells us this is desirable and this is what will make us happy. Follow the American dream and you will be happy. But here we are, a culture that pursues these things as the depression and suicide rates increase every year. where there is more money and more striving but less satisfaction. where is this happiness? where is this fullness we SO desire? of course the answer is not in what the american dream wants us to believe. but our joy comes from the Lord, from the confidence in His faithfulness and providence and goodness and mercy. that He is who He says He is, that He is good and that His mercy endures forever.
He is a GLAD GLAD GOD who is in a GOOD MOOD who is waiting to lavish all kinds of ridiculously good love all over you...if only you ask! In Proverbs 8, it says that Jesus is around the throne dancing because He is so happy that we will be with Him (proverbs 8:30-31). He is the delight of the Lord, and He delights in us too. and He will totally share that with you too.
And as we grow in the confidence that the Lord is ALWAYS good, as we grow in love of His joyful gladness, His exceeding gladness rather than believing that He is mostly mad or mostly sad (which is not a belief that has Biblical backing), as we grow to see God as He is without our cultural filters, we see that we can live in an overflow of love for the Lord. that He doesn't demand for us to strive to love Him, we don't have to try so hard not to break any rules and we don't have to fight to be disciplined all the time, and when we fall we don't have to come before His throne in fear and regret, but rather know that while we have a holy fear, He is not mad at us but He rejoices that we choose to come back to Him even in our weak love.
as we grow in just enjoying God because he enjoys us, striving ceases. Our hearts change to want to follow His commands, to want to spend more time with Him. where seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness becomes natural and we see that everything else follows. our hearts come alive to a living, passionate God and He shows us that abundant life He promises us now and He reminds us of the promises He is still waiting to fulfill in the future. And we become strong because we have confidence in who God is because we have the joy of the Lord in our lives.
that's a KIND AND FUN God to give us strength through JOY. hehehehehe.
i can talk and talk about this but it really comes down to psalm 34:8: O taste and see that the Lord is good. and you will be ruined for anything less than the fullness and truth of God.
and it's REALLY good.
what does that mean? It's beautiful. it sounds GREAT. the joy of the Lord sounds pretty nice, and strength is always good. but how do they go together?
we are in a culture and a generation that emphasizes personal greatness and striving. where if we work hard enough, if we do the right things, if we have the right connections, we will "succeed" and have a lot of money and have high status. we live in a culture that tells us this is desirable and this is what will make us happy. Follow the American dream and you will be happy. But here we are, a culture that pursues these things as the depression and suicide rates increase every year. where there is more money and more striving but less satisfaction. where is this happiness? where is this fullness we SO desire? of course the answer is not in what the american dream wants us to believe. but our joy comes from the Lord, from the confidence in His faithfulness and providence and goodness and mercy. that He is who He says He is, that He is good and that His mercy endures forever.
He is a GLAD GLAD GOD who is in a GOOD MOOD who is waiting to lavish all kinds of ridiculously good love all over you...if only you ask! In Proverbs 8, it says that Jesus is around the throne dancing because He is so happy that we will be with Him (proverbs 8:30-31). He is the delight of the Lord, and He delights in us too. and He will totally share that with you too.
And as we grow in the confidence that the Lord is ALWAYS good, as we grow in love of His joyful gladness, His exceeding gladness rather than believing that He is mostly mad or mostly sad (which is not a belief that has Biblical backing), as we grow to see God as He is without our cultural filters, we see that we can live in an overflow of love for the Lord. that He doesn't demand for us to strive to love Him, we don't have to try so hard not to break any rules and we don't have to fight to be disciplined all the time, and when we fall we don't have to come before His throne in fear and regret, but rather know that while we have a holy fear, He is not mad at us but He rejoices that we choose to come back to Him even in our weak love.
as we grow in just enjoying God because he enjoys us, striving ceases. Our hearts change to want to follow His commands, to want to spend more time with Him. where seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness becomes natural and we see that everything else follows. our hearts come alive to a living, passionate God and He shows us that abundant life He promises us now and He reminds us of the promises He is still waiting to fulfill in the future. And we become strong because we have confidence in who God is because we have the joy of the Lord in our lives.
that's a KIND AND FUN God to give us strength through JOY. hehehehehe.
i can talk and talk about this but it really comes down to psalm 34:8: O taste and see that the Lord is good. and you will be ruined for anything less than the fullness and truth of God.
and it's REALLY good.
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